The India vs Bangladesh women’s ODI series concluded on the most chaotic note possible, with Harmanpreet Kaur targeting the umpires over certain decisions. The India captain refused to mince words as they criticised the match officials over their biased decisions. After the conclusion of the game, the Bangladesh skipper expressed Nigar Sultana was asked about Harmanpreet’s remarks in the press conference. Nigar took a swipe at her Indian counterpart, saying she should’ve shown better manners.
“It is totally her (Harmanpreet’s) problem. I have nothing to do with it,” Nigar said in the press conference. “As a player, she could have shown better manners. I can’t tell you what happened, but it didn’t feel right to be there [for the photograph] with my team. It wasn’t the right environment. That’s why we went back. Cricket is a game of discipline and respect.”
About the umpiring decisions in the seires, Nigar said, “The umpires wouldn’t give her out if she wasn’t out. We had umpires from men’s international cricket, so they were good umpires. What are they [India] going to say about the caught or run-out dismissals [of which there were six excluding the Harmanpreet and Meghna wickets]? We have respected their decisions. The umpire’s decision is the final decision, whether I like it or not. Why didn’t we behave in that way [like the India players]?”
The three-match ODI series between India and Bangladesh ended with the final match getting concluded with a tie. Nigar is now keen to carry the momentum forward in the following games for her team.
Marufa Akter’s final-over heroics helped hosts Bangladesh tie the third match of the ongoing ODI series against India on Saturday. With both the teams sharing the spoils after a pulsating series decider at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, the series ended on level terms.
“Obviously, it was a great match, getting great experience. It will help us, when we won the toss, we wanted to put on 230 runs, happy Pinky got a century. At the end of day, we always think we are short of 5-10 runs. The way the girls fought, it was unbelievable. After the break, we were talking about the two ways the game would go – either we will go hard on them or they will. Nahida bowled really well. To all the bowlers, it was an excellent performance,” Nigar said after the match.
“We are looking forward to carrying this moment. As a batting unit we collapse usually, but from here, we can have many takeaways moving forward. Crows have been amazing throughout the tournament,” she further added.
With the series locked on one win apiece, both teams went into the decider in the hope of bagging the series.
However, even after 100 overs of attritional and enthralling cricket, the two teams couldn’t be separated. Still needing 35 to win the decider and 34 to tie off 8 overs, India lost 6 wickets to be all out for 225.
With ANI inputs
Topics mentioned in this article